"These then are my last words to you. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact."-William James

The Inaugural First Post

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.”-Michael Jordan

First of all let me begin by saying Happy New Year! I hope that you all had a safe and wonderful new year. I know what you’re thinking…why would you pick that as a first quote for this blog of all things? In starting this Sunday Quote tradition on post-its back in ’09..this is one of the quotes I found which happened to stick with me. Maybe it was particularly resonant because for me ’09 was ridden with an incredible amount of failure and loss in all facets of my life.

Getting up after we fall is an instinct we learn as early as toddlers learning to walk, yet for some reason getting older it becomes harder and harder to pick yourself up and begin again. We’re only human and are completely cognizant of our past failures, but individually it becomes a choice as to whether you let it rule you completely or whether you can be resilient enough to reevaluate and try again.

The reason I personally like this quote aside from being an avid sports fan is that it enumerates failure for you. Any quote can tell you that failure is inevitable and that the obvious course of action after it is to try again. Failure is relative to each person and to you it might seem like you are the only person that’s fallen that hard. Seeing failure quantified whether it is in terms of shots missed or games lost shows you the inevitable truth that everyone fails at some point in their life, everyone has regrets, everyone has moments/talks/words/days they wish they could take back. Failure teaches you something though…it teaches you exactly what you are made of and it tests you. Success is still possible after failure and some of the best, most successful people in their respective fields whether it be sports, music, journalism or medicine have experienced failure at some point. Their brilliance comes from being able to learn from failure and using it to get better. So if I could wish anything for everyone in 2010, it is that I hope you don’t let your past failures keep you down and that you are resilient and continue to get up & fight for what you want.

Why Sunday Quotes?

This idea originally came to me when I was going through a difficult time and needed to find a way to deal with things. I started to look for a positive quote at the start of every week that I ended up writing on a post-it note and keeping on my desk to motivate & get me through the week. It usually would reflect whatever was on my mind at the time. I've always been a quotes and lyrics girl so it came naturally and sort of evolved into a weekly tradition. I started sharing my quotes with a few of my friends and figured it would just be easier to turn it into a blog to be able to share with everyone. So enjoy =)